Methods for clinically analyzing the condition of blood include, for example, blood coagulation tests and blood ammonia tests. General known blood coagulation tests include, for example, prothrombin time (PT) tests and activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) tests. These methods include analyzing proteins that are involved in coagulation reactions and contained in plasma obtained by centrifuging a blood sample.
Also general blood ammonia tests include analyzing ammonium ions in plasma obtained by centrifuging a blood sample similarly to the blood coagulation tests.
In methods for clinically analyzing the condition of blood, plasma obtained by centrifuging a blood sample as mentioned above is subjected to various tests in which a certain substance in the plasma is used as an index.
Therefore, the step of promptly centrifuging blood samples taken from, for example, patients is adopted for blood test systems introduced in medical institutions such as inspection institutions and hospitals where blood condition analysis methods are clinically performed.
On the other hand, now, techniques for observing the condition of blood samples on the basis of electrical characteristics of the blood samples are being developed. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique of obtaining information on blood coagulation from an electrical characteristic, such as permittivity, of a blood sample, in which the electrical characteristic is used as an index. Patent Document 1 also describes a blood coagulation system analysis device including: a pair of electrodes; means for applying an alternating voltage to the pair of electrodes at predetermined time intervals; means for measuring the permittivity of blood disposed between the pair of electrodes; and means for analyzing the level of activity of the blood coagulation system using the permittivity of blood measured at the predetermined time intervals after the action of an anticoagulant on the blood is stopped.
In this technique, a whole-blood-state blood sample containing all blood components, which is not separated into blood components such as a plasma component and a blood cell component, is used for obtaining information on the blood sample, such as information on blood coagulation, from the permittivity of the blood sample.